My policies

Consent

By choosing to begin therapy with me, you are taken to have read, understood, and agreed to the policies set out below. Entering therapy on this basis constitutes your informed consent to the framework within which therapy takes place.

I may occasionally review my fee, but not more frequently than every 12 months from your start date. I will give you a minimum of four weeks’ written notice before any new fee takes effect.

Payment

Payment must be made in advance of each session by bank transfer.

If payment has not been received before a session is due to begin, I reserve the right to postpone the session until payment is made. Where a pattern of late or non-payment arises, I reserve the right to pause or end our work together, and will discuss this with you before doing so wherever possible.

Cancellation & attendance

I charge for cancelled or missed sessions. Your time is a recurring reservation in my calendar, and both your therapy and my practice depend on this regular commitment.

If you are occasionally unable to attend, depending on availability, I may be able to offer you an alternative time and/or the option of doing it online or by phone, to avoid you being charged without having received a session.

If you need to take an extended break from therapy, for example due to a holiday, illness, or other circumstances, please let me know as early as possible so we can plan accordingly.

I aim to give you at least four weeks’ notice of any break I myself take. Any session that I have to cancel is not payable.

Sessions

Your sessions will be weekly, on the same day and time. Each session lasts 50 minutes.

Please arrive on time rather than early, as I may be in session with another client and do not have a waiting area.

After we get started, I may agree to fortnightly or twice-weekly sessions or to do some sessions online or by phone, depending on my availability and what works best for you.

Confidentiality

I am bound by the BACP’s Ethical Framework which includes strict guidelines regarding confidentiality.

Everything you discuss with me is confidential. Nevertheless, there are specific conditions which you should be aware of:

1. I may discuss aspects of our conversations with a supervisor in order to support my work with you. Your identity will always be anonymised, i.e. no personally identifying information will be shared.
2. Confidentiality may be broken if I believe there is plausible risk of harm to yourself or others. Unless there are overwhelming safeguarding or ethical concerns that prevent me from doing so, I will always attempt to speak to you about this first so that your perspective is heard.
3. I am required to act in accordance with my safeguarding responsibilities under the Children Act 1989/2004 and the Care Act 2014. If information arises in our work that gives me reasonable cause to believe that a child or vulnerable adult is at risk of harm – whether or not they are a client of mine – I may be required to refer this to the relevant authorities. Where it is safe and appropriate to do so, I will discuss this with you before taking any action.
4. I am legally obliged to break confidentiality without prior notice in three specific cases: terrorism, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

Online & Phone Sessions

Where we agree to conduct sessions online or by phone, the same confidentiality and ethical commitments apply.

For video calls or phone calls, I use an end-to-end encrypted platform. Please ensure your own environment is private and that you will not be overheard. You are responsible for ensuring your own confidentiality at your end. If we lose connection during a session, I will attempt to reconnect or call you; if we are unable to re-establish contact, I will be in touch by message.

Online sessions are subject to the same fee and cancellation terms as in-person sessions.

Safety, substance use, etc

I cannot allow inappropriate physical contact, violence, or abusive behaviour, and reserve the right to end or refuse our work together at my discretion.

Furthermore, I require that clients do not attend sessions under the influence of alcohol or substances, as this can affect the safety and effectiveness of the work we do together.

Crisis Support

Our work together takes place within your weekly sessions. I am not available between sessions for crisis support, and I am not a crisis or emergency service.

If you are in crisis between sessions, or feel at risk of harming yourself or others, please contact one of the following:
Samaritans: 116 123 (free, 24/7)
Crisis text line: Text SHOUT to 85258
Your GP, or NHS 111 if your GP is unavailable
Emergency services: 999
Targeted services and helplines may additionally be found here.

Communication outside of sessions

Please limit communication outside of sessions to practical matters such as rescheduling or cancellations, and do so via email or messaging, not phone calls.

I ask that you do not contact me via social media. I will not respond to contact made through these channels, in order to protect the integrity and boundaries of our therapeutic relationship.

It is helpful for us to agree how you’d like me to respond if we cross paths in public. As a general rule I’ll wait for you to acknowledge me first, in respect of your privacy and comfort.

Ending therapy

There is no requirement to commit to a particular number of sessions, and you may end therapy at any time simply by letting me know.

Endings in therapy are however important to get right, and final sessions are best agreed well in advance.

There may be occasions where I need to bring our work to an end, for example due to illness, a change in my practice, or if I feel that the work is no longer appropriate or safe to continue. In such circumstances, I will give you as much notice as reasonably possible, explain my reasons as fully as I am able, and offer to support you in finding an alternative therapist where appropriate.

Scope of practice

I work as a general counsellor for adults and am trained to support a wide range of emotional and psychological difficulties.

There are some presentations that fall outside the scope of what I can safely or effectively offer. These include, but are not limited to: active psychosis, severe eating disorders requiring medical oversight, and presentations that require a level of clinical support beyond what weekly counselling can provide.

If at any point I feel that your needs would be better met elsewhere, I will discuss this with you openly and, where possible, support you in finding an appropriate referral. Similarly, if you feel at any point that you need a higher level of support, please do raise this with me.

Professional affiliation

I maintain ongoing status as a Registered Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP).

Ethics, Feedback & Complaints

I am committed to providing ethical and client-focused service, and welcome any feedback you might have.

In the event that we are unable to resolve an issue between us, I adhere to the BACP’s Ethical Framework and Professional Conduct Procedure, which allows clients to raise complaints against a BACP member.

Supervision

I commit to ongoing professional supervision with a Senior Accredited Member of the BACP. This supervisor has a confidentiality policy equivalent to mine.

Therapist incapacity

In the unlikely event that I become suddenly unable to practise, I have made arrangements with a trusted colleague who has agreed to contact my clients and provide appropriate information and onward referrals. By agreeing to this contract, you consent to your name and contact details being shared with this person solely for this purpose.

Your details

Once we have an agreement for ongoing therapy, in addition to your contact details, I will ask you to provide the following, in case I’m ever concerned for your health or safety and need to help you get support:

• Your date of birth
• An emergency contact
• Your GP details

I would not contact your GP without speaking to you first, unless I believed the situation was so urgent that doing so was not possible.

Notes & Record-Keeping

I keep brief written notes of our sessions. These notes are confidential, stored securely, and not shared with any third party except as described under Confidentiality above.

I retain notes for seven years after our work together ends. After this period, notes are securely destroyed.

You have the right to request access to the information I hold about you at any time. Please refer to my Privacy Notice for details of your rights under UK GDPR, including how to make a subject access request.